That's quite a supercilious post, surely everbody is entitled to voice an opinion whether you agree with it or not.
Dave
That's quite a supercilious post, surely everbody is entitled to voice an opinion whether you agree with it or not.
Dave
Most teachers have children and their partners largely have non-teaching jobs. Just out of interest, how would you feel if teachers were allowed to take time out during the school term to go on holiday with their children?
Carla
People who take on teaching jobs are aware of the terms of their employment and acknowledge that when they accept the post.
But wait, is this not why they have supply teachers to fill in when teachers are not at school.
Also how many school trips are organised by the teachers and they manage to take time out to accompany the pupils on an "educational" trip. In my day school cruises were the big thing and my sons went on a school sponsored outward bound trip and a trip to Barcelona.
In a utopian world everyone would adhere to the rules but in the real world there is give and take and if it is a learning experience for the child then it can't be all that bad.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:That's quite a supercilious post, surely everbody is entitled to voice an opinion whether you agree with it or not.[/quote]I suggest 'supercilious' is better than disingenuous!
On a forum if I do not agree, am I not allowed to 'voice my opinion'?
I make no criticism of those who make the decision to take the children out during school time; but it is generally for, (understandable) financial reasons.
However the tone of some posts on here is that, absence from school has a beneficial effect for both the child and the rest of the class; and the Government, Educational authorities and Teaching unions are all mistaken. <blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Steelo, theres one other big advantage to taking your children on holiday (apart from the education), and this is the confidence they learn whilst travelling, around airports and being in different countries with different cultures and ways of life. We have taken our children out of school since they were in primary school. They are now in uni. They have no problem going places on their own and have even flown on their own from the ages of 14. Nothing fazes them. We have also taught them to be careful and streetwise and not to trust people whilst they are travelling who appear to want to be their friend etc. We have 2 incredibly well rounded, confident, well mannered, educated, children who often tell us that all the travelling they did helped them enormously with their confidence and their education. So maybe if head teachers sat down with parents who have taken their children out of school for many holidays in the past and talked to them about how these holidays helped shape their childrens lives (in a positive way) perhaps they would look on the subject of absenteeism from school for holidays in a more positive way. Gill[/quote]That confidence is only obtained if you travel during absence from school and not during the holidays?
My point David, is what about teacher's children have a learning experience with their parent/s on a holiday during term time? Everyone seems to be able to justify this for their own children, so if it is fine for every other child to have time out of school then why not a teacher's child? If it is such a valid educational experience that it justifies taking the child out of school, then surely this experience should be available to all children regardless of the job one of their parents' does? What about the single mother/father teacher who can't afford to pay for a holiday for the kids during the school holidays?
All of the arguments seem to boil down to one thing - money. Parents want to save money and let's face it when we all want to do something we will find any way that we can to justify doing it.
Carla
Carla,
I think that we are agreeing.
Robert,
I believe that the Government, Educational authorities and Teaching unions have implemented a scheme to attempt to stop persistent truancy which occurs throughout the school term, i.e. one or two days every other week or worse. It is to put some responsibility on the parents of those children to make sure that they attend school. It should not be to penalise family holidays, but some schools appear to be applying these rules to this end.
In this day and age there should be a emphasis on the family bonding that is achieve during these times and the benefits that this brings in the later years. After all in these modern times fathers are allowed paternity leave to bond with their children and build a family unit which creates respect for elders and a balanced personality. This is not getting at single parents where equal emphasis should be placed on the bond between parent and child and every encouragement should be given to achieving this.
We always took our children out of school during September and it was not for financial reasons. We didn't go to Florida in those days, we went to Austria and we travelled by train and as my husband worked for British Rail we had free travel. But my husband always allowed his staff to have their holidays during July/August and he went later. After all not everyone can get off in an industry at the same time. However we had an extremely enlightened head teacher. She said that our children could learn as much on a foreign trip than they could at school and they always encouraged to give a talk to the rest of their class when they returned. When they went on to a private school again they had no problems and were commended for having a good all round knowledge. Travel can certainly be extremely educational and most parents do not take their children out for more than two weeks. These parents are not the ones that the school should be chasing, they should chase the parents who do not check up on whether their children are in school or not and who do not help their children with homework etc.
Andrena
This subject has been debated before on here and I still have the clear impression that that those in favour of taking holidays in term time are as much seeking to justify that decision to themselves as they are to others.
It's a dangerous game to offer advice to parents on how they should bring up their children and I'm certainly not seeking to do so but it seems to me that in most cases it's more about saving money than it is about broadening minds.
I took both my kids out of school last October to go to Florida. I have just had approval to do the same again next February for Florida again and i have chosen the dates for the following reasons:
3 children travelling all from different local councils hence slightly different easter breaks / some half term breaks.
I would not take my 20 month old and 3 month old to Florida during the hot summer months.
I limited the amount of absent days by using 1 week approved absence and 1 week half term holiday.
Not looking specifically to save money, not looking specifically to broaden minds and certainly not looking to justify it....... just doing the best for my family and that is Florida in the cooler months and using the least amount of school days to do that.
Garry Pullan
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by gpullan
Not looking specifically to save money, not looking specifically to broaden minds and certainly not looking to justify it....... just doing the best for my family and that is Florida in the cooler months and using the least amount of school days to do that.[/quote]I think that's my point really. For you, doing your best for your children is taking them out of school to go on holiday while, for others, taking them out of school is viewed differently.
Both approaches are perfectly legitimate and down to individual parents' discretion and that's how it should be. We all do our best but don't always agree what that is.
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